Day 2: Can God Be Known Personally?
Servants, Seekers, and Children
Characters
Robert – Christian
Rahim – Devout Muslim
Ram – Devout Hindu
Setting:
Late night. Silence between sentences. The conversation is deeper now.
Opening: A Question That Refuses to Go Away
Ram:
I couldn’t sleep after yesterday. We spoke about God—but I keep asking myself:
Is God even knowable, or are we chasing shadows?
Rahim:
God is beyond us. That itself is faith.
Robert:
Or maybe that’s where faith stops too early.
1. Islam Under the Microscope: Submission Without Intimacy
Rahim:
The Qur’an is clear. Allah is utterly unlike creation:
“There is nothing like unto Him.”
(Qur’an 42:11)
To claim closeness is dangerous. We are ‘abd—slaves.
Robert:
Let’s slow down, Rahim.
If Allah is unknowable in essence, then tell me:
What exactly do you love when you say you love Allah?
Rahim:
We love His mercy.
Robert:
But even that mercy is conditional:
“Allah does not love the unbelievers.”
(Qur’an 3:32)
“Allah does not love the wrongdoers.”
(Qur’an 3:57)
So Allah’s love depends on human behavior.
Let me press further.
Allah has 99 names, but not one relational name like Father.
Why?
Rahim:
Because Allah has no equals.
Robert:
Fatherhood does not imply equality—it implies initiative and care.
Yet even Muhammad admits:
“I do not know what will be done with me or with you.”
(Qur’an 46:9)
If the messenger himself does not know God relationally, how can the follower claim it?
(Rahim exhales slowly.)
2. Hinduism Under the Microscope: Mystery Without Resolution
Ram:
In Hinduism, God is not a person to be known. God is Brahman—beyond thought.
The Upanishads say:
“Yato vāco nivartante aprāpya manasā saha”
“Words return, along with the mind, unable to reach Him.”
(Taittiriya Upanishad 2.4)
Robert:
Then Ram, be honest.
If God cannot be known, why do you worship Him?
Ram:
Because ignorance causes suffering. Knowledge leads to liberation.
Robert:
But your own scriptures admit knowledge is impossible.
“Neti, Neti” — Not this, not this
(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.3.6)
So Hinduism says:
God cannot be known
Truth cannot be defined
Liberation happens through realization—but of what, exactly?
This isn’t humility.
This is epistemological collapse.
Ram:
That’s why avatars come.
Robert:
Then the question becomes sharper:
If God comes repeatedly—as Rama, Krishna, others—
Why does evil persist?
Why does dharma keep collapsing every age?
Your own Gita admits this cycle never ends:
“Whenever righteousness declines… I manifest Myself.”
(Bhagavad Gita 4:7)
That means the solution never actually solves the problem.
3. The Shared Human Problem
Robert:
Let me unify both of your views.
Islam: God is too distant to be known
Hinduism: God is too abstract to be known
Yet humans everywhere long to be known.
Why?
The Bible gives a brutal diagnosis:
“God has set eternity in the human heart.”
(Ecclesiastes 3:11)
We are not just ignorant.
We are separated.
4. Christianity’s Dangerous Claim
Rahim:
Christianity claims too much.
Robert:
Yes. And that’s why it must be examined seriously.
Jesus does not say:
“Seek enlightenment”
“Submit without assurance”
“Meditate into oneness”
He says:
“This is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God.”
(John 17:3)
Not know about.
Know personally.
Ram:
But knowing God personally limits Him.
Robert:
No.
It reveals His nature.
The Bible does not say God acts loving.
It says:
“God is love.”
(1 John 4:8)
An impersonal being cannot love.
A distant being cannot suffer.
A hidden being cannot save.
5. Servants, Devotees… or Children?
Rahim:
Islam honors servanthood.
Robert:
So does the Bible—but it doesn’t stop there.
Jesus says:
“I no longer call you servants… I have called you friends.”
(John 15:15)
And Paul goes further:
“You did not receive a spirit of slavery… but of adoption.”
(Romans 8:15)
Ask yourselves honestly:
Why does no prophet, no avatar, no guru ever invite people to call God Father?
Because only a Son can reveal a Father.
6. The Cost of Personal Knowledge
Ram:
Knowing God personally would require God to enter suffering.
Robert:
Exactly.
That is why other religions stop short.
The Bible doesn’t.
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
(John 1:14)
God doesn’t explain suffering from a distance.
He enters it.
7. Final Philosophical Pressure
Robert:
Let me leave you with three unavoidable questions:
If God cannot be known, why does the heart demand Him?
If God never enters history, how does He heal history?
If God never pays the cost of evil, who does?
Jesus says:
“Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.”
(John 14:9)
This is either blasphemy…
or the clearest revelation of God ever given.
There is no middle ground.
Closing (Quiet, Heavy)
Rahim:
If this is true… then religion has hidden God from us.
Ram:
And philosophy has dissolved Him.
Robert:
And the Gospel reveals Him.
“The light shines in the darkness.”
(John 1:5)
